Increased Funding for Library Programs; Books for Minnesota Kids; Amanda Jones Lawsuit Moves Forward
Library and Banned Books News 2-13-26. Book censorship in CA, FL, MI, PA, TX, UT
Hello Friends,
In the middle of another tough week, we’ve actually had some good and inspiring news in the library and book sector of the country. Let’s look at that and some fun ‘tribute to the Olympics’ wacky library reels before we get to the shenanigans going on in the states.
United States
Appropriations Bills Pass With Library Funding From the Publishers Lunch Newsletter
After dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, which was later reinstated by a federal court, President Trump signed appropriations bills this month that increase funding for libraries, American Libraries magazine reports.
The legislation allocates $212.5 million—a $1.4 million increase—for “library programs run by IMLS through the Library Services and Technology Act,” according to the ALA. Though funding for the IMLS itself decreased slightly, due to the reduction in staffing there.
Funding for the Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) program, which is run predominantly through school libraries, was flat at $30 million. The office that administers the program was moved to the Department of Labor from the Department of Education, as part of Trump’s efforts to dismantle the DOE.
“Still, Congress has signaled that library funding is a national priority,” the ALA stated in the magazine. “We need to celebrate this win—and keep that signal strong.”
Publishers Near and Far Step Up for Minnesota’s Children from Publishers Weekly
[S]everal Twin Cities presses and an independent publisher headquartered in California are going even further to support Minnesota—especially its children.
Lerner Publishing Group publicity director Lindsay Matvick says that Lerner, which is headquartered in downtown Minneapolis, is funneling books to young readers through A Book of My Own, a Minnesota organization providing access to books for children in need.
Since Amanda Jones’s case has become of national interest, I’m posting it under the U.S. rather than Louisiana. She’s in the documentary The Librarians and wrote the book That Librarian, which I discussed here.
After flap over book bans, Livingston librarian can pursue defamation case, state Supreme Court says from WBRZ (ABC News)
NEW ORLEANS - The Louisiana Supreme Court is allowing a librarian’s defamation lawsuit to continue, ruling Tuesday that Amanda Jones can press her claim that a Lafayette man and his organization harmed her with allegations that she promoted pornography among children.
Justices voted unanimously to dismiss a request by Michael Lunsford and the Citizens for a New Louisiana to throw the lawsuit out.
In 2022, Jones spoke against banning books amid a flap over what material should be available in the Livingston Parish library system. Louisiana’s 1st Circuit Court of Appeal said last year that Jones had demonstrated she could possibly win a lawsuit.
The justices’ decision Tuesday was released without comment.
And this, too, while it is in Texas, is food for thought about elections all over the country.
Defending the freedom to read is not radical — it’s American from The Hill
Political strategists and commentators are looking at Democrat Taylor Rehmet’s stunning special election victory in Texas state Senate District 9 to forecast electoral shifts ahead of 2026’s midterms. But those trying to understand this election’s surprise outcome also need to consider the local politics at play.
Rehmet’s opponent was Republican Leigh Wambsganss, chief communications officer of conservative media company Patriot Mobile. She has been a primary architect behind the movement to populate North Texas school boards with candidates willing to orchestrate an extreme, right-wing takeover of public schools. These school board takeovers resulted in unprecedented book bans and attacks on residents’ right to read.
As the director of the documentary “The Librarians” and a librarian living and working in North Texas, who participated in the film, we witnessed how First Amendment rights are still an issue concerning parents and influencing how they vote. Rehmet’s win shows an aversion to letting outside political action groups and extremist politicians deny families their rights to determine what their children can and cannot read.
Four Freedom to Read Bills to Follow Right Now: Book Censorship News, February 6, 2026 from Book Riot
In at least 15 states, lawmakers are proposing bills that would directly target libraries and access to literature. You can look at what some of those bills are in this post and in this post, as well as take a look at proposals in Kentucky and in Iowa. It is crucial that residents of those states take action, and it is vital that residents in other states speak out to their own representatives to ensure similar bills don’t creep up.
While spending time on bad bills is important, so, too, is highlighting the good bills. These bills deserve attention, too. Though they are always imperfect, they provide substantial concrete support for libraries and literary access. They also signal legislative support for those issues, which cannot be taken for granted.
There are currently freedom to read bills under consideration in three states: Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania. An additional one is currently on deck in Virginia as well, though the details of that are worthy of a little more discernment. These are in addition to the 13 similar bills that have already passed.
It’s hypocritical to denounce book bans while publishing their defenders from LitHub
Over on Balls & Strikes, law writer Jay Willis published an excellent piece about the Hachette imprint Basic Liberty publishing conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s So Ordered, a book about Alito’s “judicial philosophy and reflects on the roles of the law, the Constitution, and the courts in preserving America’s spirit of liberty.” Putting out this book at the same time they’re calling for others to fight book bans, is rank hypocrisy, Willis eloquently argues.
Conceding that “business is business, and that Big Five publishers are probably not concerned with maintaining ideological uniformity across every single title published by every single imprint,” Willis writes that choosing to publish a Supreme Court justice who is actively empowering book banners doesn’t square with Hachette’s professed values:
The States
California
Redlands schools aim to monitor what books land on library shelves
Board doesn’t OK policy to promote “age-appropriate and wholesome” books, but moves to add accountability for materials
The Redlands Unified School District school board on Tuesday night discussed a policy to give principals the power to pull explicit books off library shelves and require librarians to record who approved a book for the library and why.
But rather than approve the new rules, board members directed Superintendent Juan Cabral to draft a procedure to track which books come into libraries and begin requiring books to be signed off by the principal before they’re placed on shelves.
The topic is expected to return at the Redlands Unified School District board’s March 10 meeting. …
Olson, who brought the policy forward, said she and Wilson had pushed for it in the past year. Olson said she wished all librarians could be trusted, but found that was not the case.
“This is not an honor system,” Olson said. “We have to have accountability for when things go off the tracks.”
Olson and Wilson said the book “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe, was found on the shelf and was inappropriate for high school students. The book was new to the library and had not yet been checked out. Olson did not say which school had the book.
The award-winning book is an illustrated memoir of Kobabe’s life through the eyes of an asexual non-gender binary person. It tracks their life through puberty to college and addresses themes of dating and health. …
In December the board removed one book, “Push” by Sapphire, from school shelves and has restricted access for “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison to 18-year-old students with parent permission. Broome filed complaints against both books.
Florida
House passes bill that sparks partisan debate on book bans from the Miami Times
The House has passed a bill that Democrats fear will lead to more book bans in public schools, sparking a partisan debate on parental rights.
Republicans argue the measure is needed to get rid of the remaining inappropriate books left on the shelves and protect young people. …
HB 1119 would ban the schools from considering the literary, artistic, political or scientific value of books if the material is deemed otherwise harmful for minors.
The bill comes after a 2023 law that made it easier for adults to challenge books in public school libraries, which has led to classic titles being taken out. That law is currently being challenged in federal court after some large publishing companies, best-selling youth authors and local parents filed a 2024 lawsuit in Orlando.
Michigan
Lapeer Community Schools to review 83 books removed from school media centers from Michigan Advance
Parents, educators and advocates debate removals as students lose access to dozens of titles
Community members pushing back against potential restrictions on reading materials at the Lapeer District Library say they’re now facing similar concerns within the local school district, after administrators removed 83 books from Lapeer High School and Zemmer Middle School.
Members of Fight 4 the First Lapeer said they confirmed with Lapeer Community Schools Superintendent Matt Wandrie that the books had been removed, noting that the list of books removed matched a list of titles identified by the organization Take Back the Classroom.
The group argues that “pornographic books have infiltrated classrooms and libraries for the purpose of grooming our children under the guise of education” and shares resources on how to have books removed from public school libraries. …
In a statement, Wandrie said that a community member made district officials aware of the books in question, promoting their temporary removal and review. There was no complaint or even a request for action, he said.
“The district will engage in a review of the books in question as well as an overall evaluation of the book selection process moving forward,” Wandrie said. “Per board policy, a committee will be convened to conduct a thorough review.”
Pennsylvania
Elizabethtown school board rejects 3 more books; teacher says she’s ‘baffled’ from The LNP Media Group (Lancaster Online)
Students in 10th grade English class at Elizabethtown Area High School will read about the fictional March sisters as they tended hearth and home during the Civil War in Louisa May Alcott’s beloved novel “Little Women.”
And, dipping into F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” they will immerse themselves in the Roaring Twenties to witness the wealthy Jay Gatsby’s tragic obsession with a former love.
What they won’t read for class are three teacher-recommended contemporary novels that have all received various literary accolades: “Turtles All the Way Down” by John Green, about a teen dealing with obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety while investigating a billionaire’s disappearance; “Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel, whose characters survive in a post-apocalyptic world after a flu pandemic wipes out most of Earth’s population; and “Long Way Down” by Jason Reynolds, about a 15-year-old bent on avenging his brother’s murder and a minute-long ghostly elevator ride that makes him question his path.
All five books were up for approval at Tuesday’s Elizabethtown school board meeting, so they could be incorporated into a novel study unit on how people seek happiness, set to begin in March. The English department and curriculum committee offered these books as replacements for books removed from the high school English curriculum in October because the board deemed them inappropriate for students.
Removed last fall were the memoirThe Glass Castle” “ and the novels “The Hate U Give” and “The House on Mango Street.” Also banished were Sylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy” and the 1996 film “Romeo + Juliet” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.
Texas
CFISD board reverses controversial textbook policy that banned certain chapters of science textbooks from ABC News
CYPRESS, Texas (KTRK) -- The Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District has officially rescinded a controversial policy the board adopted two years ago that banned certain chapters from science textbooks.
This change comes after an expensive, much-talked-about election in November, in which three political newcomers were elected. November’s election changed the board’s makeup, and this recent change is a result of that.
At Monday’s board meeting, the board voted 4-3 to restore textbook chapters that trustees removed in 2024.
Those chapters are from science textbooks, and at the time, board members said they didn’t want students to access them because they covered topics such as vaccines, climate change, and diversity.
Utah
Maya Angelou’s estate joins Utah lawsuit over the state’s school book bans from The Salt Lake Tribune
The renowned author’s estate signed on alongside Kurt Vonnegut’s estate and three other authors.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah announced Thursday that it amended a lawsuit filed in January against the Utah State Board of Education and others. The amended lawsuit adds the Caged Bird Legacy, the entity run by Angelou’s family to oversee her literary works, to the list of plaintiffs.
The group joins the estate of Kurt Vonnegut and three living authors, Elana K. Arnold, Ellen Hopkins and Amy Reed. The authors’ works have either been put on the statewide ban list or removed in some districts. …
“Maya Angelou believed in the power of literature to illuminate truth, expand understanding, and affirm the dignity of every human being,” Floyd-Johnson said. “Efforts to silence or restrict access to stories, especially those speaking to race, identity, trauma and resilience, run counter to the values she championed throughout her life.”
Let Utah Read Event 2/13 Brings Authors and the Community Together to Defend Books from PEN America
Public Urged to Help Defeat New Law that Would Further Censor Books in Schools
(SALT LAKE CITY)—Let Utah Read is hosting its annual read-in event on Fri., Feb. 13, bringing together authors and the community to defend books and literary freedom. Ahead of the event, the ACLU of Utah and PEN America are appealing to the public to support the defeat of new state legislation that would further censor reading and teaching materials in public schools
The two-hour Let Utah Read event at the State Capitol Rotunda, starting at 3:30 pm, will feature a community reading hour followed by remarks from authors and other speakers, including Representative John Arthur and author Abdi Nazemian, whose novel Like a Love Story was banned statewide in Utah in 2025. The event will bring together Utahns from all walks of life to defend literary freedom, free expression, and the First Amendment.
The free event is sponsored by the Let Utah Read coalition that defends the freedom to read and opposes censorship, in partnership with EveryLibrary, PEN America, Penguin Random House, ACLU of Utah, the Utah Library Association, and the National Booksellers Association.
We haven’t looked at Alberta, Canada for a while, but as a reminder, there’s still shenanigans going on there, too.
Alberta, Canada
Canadian Publishers Speak Out Against Recent Book Bans in School Libraries From Publishing Perspectives
Despite the concerns raised by teachers, librarians, and publishers, a ministerial order signed in September by the Minister of Education and Childcare has been implemented, resulting in the removal of titles across the province of Alberta.
Thanks for reading! We’ll be back on Sunday with a little challenge and some book briefs.
The digest of censorship issues in states across the country is helpful to realize where oppression of free thought is under attack.
Sally Field posted a video about the importance of local elections and the increased impact participation in those votes are.
Nice to have some much needed good news this week. It’s comforting to know people continue to fight the good fight.